Pesticide fate in soil-sediment-water environment in relation to contamination preventing actions

The increasing use of pesticides during the past five decades has highlighted the potential risk posed by pesticides to the environment. The unequivocal presence of pesticide residues in soil, sediment and water samples has raised public and scientific awareness. Pesticides are exposed to environmental conditions and thus they can be degraded by the influence of physical, chemical and biological factors, volatilized, adsorbed by soil colloids and transported offsite by surface runoff and leaching. The quantity of each pesticide that can be found in soil, sediment and water bodies depends on the significance of all the afore-mentioned processes. Moreover, agricultural practices followed during and after pesticide application also influence the environmental dispersion of pesticides. Climate change, new technologies used in pesticide formulation (nanopesticides, resolved isomers), and new application-release strategies are expected to determine the fate of pesticide in the soil-sediment-water environment.